1.
Oleg of Novgorod
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Oleg of Novgorod was a Varangian prince who ruled all or part of the Rus people during the early 10th century. He also launched at least one attack on Constantinople, capital of the Byzantine Empire, according to East Slavic chronicles, Oleg was supreme ruler of the Rus from 882 to 912. The nature of Olegs relationship with the Rurikid ruling family of the Rus, according to the Primary Chronicle, Oleg was a relative of the first ruler, Rurik, and was entrusted by Rurik to take care of both his kingdom and his young son Igor. Oleg gradually took control of the Dnieper cities, seizing the power in Kiev by tricking and slaying Askold and Dir, the new capital was a convenient place to launch a raid against Constantinople in 907. According to the chronicle, the Byzantines attempted to poison Oleg, having fixed his shield to the gate of the imperial capital, Oleg won a favourable trade treaty, which eventually was of great benefit to both nations. Although Byzantine sources did not record these hostilities, the text of the treaty survives in the Chronicle, the Novgorod First Chronicle does not give the date of the commencement of Olegs reign, but dates his death to 922 rather than 912. Scholars have contrasted this dating scheme with the reigns of roughly thirty-three years for both Oleg and Igor in the Primary Chronicle. The Primary Chronicle and other Kievan sources place Olegs grave in Kiev, in the Primary Chronicle, Oleg is known as the Prophet, an epithet alluding to the sacred meaning of his Norse name. According to the legend, romanticised by Alexander Pushkin in his ballad The Song of the Wise Oleg, to defy the prophecies, Oleg sent the horse away. Many years later he asked where his horse was, and was told it had died and he asked to see the remains and was taken to the place where the bones lay. When he touched the skull with his boot a snake slithered from the skull. Oleg died, thus fulfilling the prophecy, in Scandinavian traditions, this legend lived on in the saga of Orvar-Odd. According to the Primary Chronicle, Oleg died in 912 and his successor, Igor of Kiev, the Schechter Letter, a document written by a Jewish Khazar, a contemporary of Romanus I Lecapenus, describes the activities of a Rus warlord named HLGW, usually transcribed as Helgu. For years many scholars disregarded or discounted the Schechter Letter account, zuckerman posited that the early chronology of the Rus had to be re-determined in light of these sources. In contrast to Zuckermans version, the Primary Chronicle and the later Kiev Chronicle place Olegs grave in Kiev, where it could be seen at the time of the compilation of these documents. Furthermore, scholars have pointed out that if Oleg succeeded Rurik in 879, he could hardly have been active almost 70 years later and it has also been suggested that Helgu-Oleg who waged war in the 940s was distinct from both of Ruriks successors. He could have one of the fair and great princes recorded in the Russo-Byzantine treaties of 911 and 944 or one of the archons of Rus mentioned in De administrando imperio. Georgy Vernadsky even identified the Oleg of the Schechter Letter with Igors otherwise anonymous eldest son, however, the academic mainstream has not endorsed either of these theories
2.
Rurik dynasty
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The Rurik dynasty or Rurikids was a dynasty founded by the Varangian prince Rurik, who established himself in Novgorod around the year AD862. They ruled until 1610 and the Time of Troubles, following which they were succeeded by the Romanovs and they are one of Europes oldest royal houses, with numerous existing cadet branches. The Rurikid dynasty was founded in 862 by Rurik, a Varangian prince, come and reign as princes and have authority over us. Three brothers came with their kin and all the Rus in response to this invitation, Rurik set up rule in Novgorod, giving more provincial towns to his brothers. The Rurikid Dynasty DNA Project of FamilyTreeDNA commercial genetic genealogy company reports that Y-DNA testing of the descendants of Rurikids suggests their non-Slavic origin, Rurik and his brothers founded a state that later historians called Kievan Rus′. By the middle of the century, Kievan Rus′ had dissolved into independent principalities. The dynasty followed agnatic seniority and the izgoi principle, in addition, a line of Polotsk princes assimilated themselves with the princes of Lithuania. In the 10th century the Council of Liubech made some amendments to a succession rule, vsevolods line eventually became better known as the Monomakhovychi and was the predominant one. The line of Svyatoslav later became known as Olegovychi and often claim to the lands of Chernihiv. The Izyaslavychi who ruled Turov and Volhynia were eventually replaced by a Monomakhovychi branch, the Rurikid dynasty… attempted to impose on their highly diverse polity the integrative concept of russkaia zemlia and the unifying notion of a Rus′ people. But Kievan Rus′ was never really a unified polity and it was a loosely bound, ill-defined, and heterogeneous conglomeration of lands and cities inhabited by tribes and populous groups whose loyalties were primarily territorial. This caused the Rurik dynasty to effectively dissolve into several sub-dynasties ruling smaller states in the 10th and 11th centuries and these were the Olgoviches of Severia who ruled in Chernigov, Yuryeviches who controlled Vladimir-Suzdal, and Romanoviches in Galicia-Volhynia. The Olgoviches descended from Oleg I of Chernigov, a son of Sviatoslav II of Kiev and they continued to rule until the early 14th century when they were torn apart by the emerging Grand Duchy of Lithuania and Grand Duchy of Moscow. Vsevolod I of Kiev was the father of Vladimir II Monomakh, two of Vladimir IIs sons were Mstislav I of Kiev and Yuri Dolgorukiy. The Romanoviches were the line of Roman the Great, descended from Mstislav I of Kiev through his son Iziaslav II of Kiev and his grandson Mstislav II of Kiev, father of Roman the Great. The older Monomakhovychi line that ruled Principality of Volhynia, they were crowned kings of Galicia and Volhynia. Romanovychi displaced the line of Izyaslavychi from Turov and Volhynia as well as Rostyslavychi from Galicia. The last were two brothers of Romanovychi, Andrew and Lev II, who ruled jointly and were trying to repel Mongol incursions
3.
Staraya Ladoga
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It used to be a prosperous trading outpost in the 8th and 9th centuries. A multi-ethnic settlement, it was dominated by Scandinavians who were called by the name of Rus, for that reason, it is sometimes called the first capital of Russia, though back then Russia didnt exist for many centuries to come. Dendrochronology suggests that Ladoga was founded in 753, until 950, it was one of the most important trading ports of Eastern Europe. Merchant vessels sailed from the Baltic Sea through Ladoga to Novgorod and this route is known as the trade route from the Varangians to the Greeks. An alternative way led down the Volga River along the Volga trade route to the Khazar capital of Atil, tellingly, the oldest Arabian Middle Age coin in Europe was unearthed in Ladoga. The original inhabitants of the settlement were Norsemen, the original Finnish name, Alode-joki, was rendered as Aldeigja in Norse language and later as Ladoga in Old East Slavic. According to the Hypatian Codex that was created at the end of 13th century, Ruriks successors later moved to Novgorod and then to Kiev where foundations for the powerful state of Kievan Rus were laid. There are several huge kurgans, or royal funerary barrows, at the outskirts of Ladoga, one of them is said to be Ruriks grave, and another one—that of his successor Oleg. The Heimskringla and other Norse sources mention that in the late 990s Eric Haakonsson of Norway raided the coast and set the town ablaze. Ladoga was the most important trading center in Eastern Europe from about 800 to 900 CE, Ladogas next mention in chronicles is dated 1019, when Ingigerd of Sweden married Yaroslav of Novgorod. Under the terms of their settlement, Yaroslav ceded Ladoga to his wife, who appointed her fathers cousin. This information is confirmed by sagas and archaeological evidence, which suggests that Ladoga gradually evolved into a primarily Varangian settlement, at least two Swedish kings spent their youths in Ladoga, king Stenkil and Inge I, and possibly also king Anund Gårdske. In the 12th and 13th centuries, Ladoga functioned as a trade outpost of the powerful Novgorod Republic, later its trade significance declined and most of the population engaged in fishing in the 15th century. After new fortresses such as Oreshek and Korela were constructed in the 14th century further to the west of Ladoga, Ladoga belonged to the Vodskaya pyatina of the Republic and contained eighty-four homesteads in the 15th century, most of the land belonged to the church. The Novgorodians built there a citadel with five towers and several churches, the reconstruction of one of the towers of Staraya Ladogas fortress was scheduled to be completed in 2010. The fortress was rebuilt at the turn of the 15th and 16th centuries, while the churches of St. George. Inside St. Georges, some magnificent 12th-century frescoes are still visible, in 1703, Peter the Great founded the town of Novaya Ladoga closer to the bank of Lake Ladoga. The ancient fortress thenceforth declined and came to be known as Staraya Ladoga, the heart of Staraya Ladoga is an old fortress where the Yelena River flows into the Volkhov
4.
Grand Duchy of Moscow
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The Grand Duchy of Moscow, or Grand Principality of Moscow, was a late medieval Rus principality centered on Moscow and the predecessor state of the early modern Tsardom of Russia. The state originated with Daniel I, who inherited Moscow in 1283, eclipsing and it later annexed the Novgorod Republic in 1478 and the Grand Duchy of Tver in 1485. After the Mongol invasion of Rus, Muscovy was a vassal to the Mongol ruled Golden Horde until 1480. By his marriage to the niece of the last Byzantine emperor, he established Muscovy as the state of the Roman Empire. Ivans successor Vasili III also enjoyed success, gaining Smolensk from Lithuania in 1512. Vasilis son Ivan IV was an infant at his fathers death in 1533 and he was crowned in 1547, assuming the title of tsar together with the proclamation of Tsardom of Russia. As with many states the country had no particular official name. The Duke of Moscow or the Sovereign of Moscow were common short titles, in rivalry with other duchies Moscow dukes also designated themselves as the Grand Dukes, claiming a higher position in the hierarchy of Russian dukes. During the territorial growth and later acquisitions, the title became rather lengthy. Since the 14th century various Moscow dukes added of all Rus to their titles, after the title of Russian metropolitans, Dmitry Shemyaka was the first Moscow duke who minted coins with the title the Sovereign of all Rus. Under the Polish-Lithuanian influence the country began to be called Muscovy in Western Europe, the first appearances of the term were in an Italian document of 1500. Initially Moscovia was the Latinized name of the city of Moscow itself, not of the state, later it acquired its meaning and has been used alongside of the older name. The term Muscovy persisted in the West until the beginning of the 18th century and is used in historical contexts. When the Mongols invaded the lands of Kievan Rus in the 13th century, the first ruler of the principality of Moscow, Daniel I, was the youngest son of Alexander Nevsky of Vladimir-Suzdal. He started to expand his principality by seizing Kolomna and securing the bequest of Pereslavl-Zalessky to his family, daniels son Yuriy controlled the entire basin of the Moskva River and expanded westward by conquering Mozhaisk. He then forged an alliance with the overlord of the Rus principalities, Uzbeg Khan of the Golden Horde, the Khan allowed Yuriy to claim the title of Grand Duke of Vladimir-Suzdal, a position which allowed him to interfere in the affairs of the Novgorod Republic to the north-west. Yuriys successor, Ivan I, managed to retain the title of Grand Duke by cooperating closely with the Mongols and by collecting tribute and taxes from other Rus principalities on their behalf. This relationship enabled Ivan to gain regional ascendancy, particularly over Moscows chief rival, the city of Tver
5.
Tsardom of Russia
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From 1551 to 1700, Russia grew 35,000 km2 per year. After a military victory over Sweden and Poland, he implemented substantial reforms and proclaimed the Russian Empire in 1721. While the oldest endonyms of the Grand Duchy of Moscow used in its documents were Rus and the Russian land, in the 1480s Russian state scribes Ivan Cherny and Mikhail Medovartsev mention Russia under the name Росиа, Medovartsev also mentions the sceptre of Russian lordship. In England of the 16th century, it was both as Russia and Muscovy. In Northern Europe and at the court of the Holy Roman Empire, however, muscovites refute this, saying that their country was originally called Russia. When they are asked what nation they are, they respond Russac, which means Russians, and when they are asked what place they are from, by the 16th century, the Russian ruler had emerged as a powerful, autocratic figure, a Tsar. By assuming that title, the sovereign of Moscow tried to emphasize that he was a ruler or emperor on par with the Byzantine emperor or the Mongol khan. At first, the Byzantine term autokrator expressed only the meaning of an independent ruler. Ivan IV was crowned Tsar and thus was recognized, at least by the Russian Orthodox Church and that concept was to resonate in the self-image of Russians in future centuries. The development of the Tsars autocratic powers reached a peak during the reign of Ivan IV, Ivan strengthened the position of the Tsar to an exceptional degree, demonstrating the risks of unrestrained power in the hands of a mentally unstable individual. Although apparently intelligent and energetic, Ivan suffered from breakdowns of paranoia and depression, Ivan IV became Grand Prince of Moscow in 1533 at the age of three. The Shuysky and Belsky factions of the boyars competed for control of the regency until Ivan assumed the throne in 1547, reflecting Moscows new imperial claims, Ivans coronation as Tsar was a ritual modeled after those of the Byzantine emperors. With the continuing assistance of a group of boyars, Ivan began his reign with a series of useful reforms, in the 1550s, he declared a new law code, revamped the military, and reorganized local government. These reforms undoubtedly were intended to strengthen the state in the face of continuous warfare, the key documents prepared by the so-called Select Council of advisors and promulgated during this period are as follows. Muscovy remained a fairly unknown society in Western Europe until Baron Sigismund von Herberstein published his Rerum Moscoviticarum Commentarii in 1549 and this provided a broad view of what had been a rarely visited and poorly reported state. In the 1630s, the Russian Tsardom was visited by Adam Olearius, whose lively, further information about Russia was circulated by English and Dutch merchants. One of them, Richard Chancellor, sailed to the White Sea in 1553, upon his return to England, the Muscovy Company was formed by himself, Sebastian Cabot, Sir Hugh Willoughby, and several London merchants. Ivan the Terrible used these merchants to exchange letters with Elizabeth I, despite the domestic turmoil of the 1530s and 1540s, Russia continued to wage wars and to expand
6.
Millennium of Russia
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The Millennium of Russia is a bronze monument in the Novgorod Kremlin. It was erected in 1862 to celebrate the millennium of Ruriks arrival to Novgorod, a competition to design the monument was held in 1859. An architect Viktor Hartmann and an artist Mikhail Mikeshin were declared the winners, Mikeshins design called for a grandiose, 15-metre-high bell crowned by a cross symbolizing the tsars power. The bell was to be encircled with tiers of sculptures representing Russian monarchs, clerics, generals. As for the Russian rulers, Ivan the Terrible is famously absent from the monument due to his role in the 1570 pillage and massacre of Novgorod by the Oprichnina. Alongside the Muscovite princes, the mediaeval Lithuanian dynasts such as Gediminas or Vytautas the Great who reigned over the Eastern Slavs of the present-day Belarus and Ukraine are represented. The most expensive Russian monument up to time, it was erected at a cost of 400,000 roubles. In order to provide an appropriate pedestal for the sculpture, sixteen blocks of Sortavala granite were brought to Novgorod. The bronze monument itself weighs 100 tons, at the time when the monument was inaugurated, many art critics felt that it was overloaded with figures. Supporters regard Mikeshins design as harmonious with the setting of the Kremlin. During World War II, the Nazis dismantled the monument, however, the Red Army regained control of Novgorod and the monument was restored to public view in 1944. A 5-ruble commemorative coin was released in the USSR in 1988 to commemorate the monument, history and description on the website of the Novgorod administration
7.
Early Slavs
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The first written use of the name Slavs dates to the sixth century, when the Slavic tribes inhabited a large portion of Central and Eastern Europe. By that century, native Iranian ethnic groups had been absorbed by the regions Slavic population, over the next two centuries, the Slavs expanded southwest toward the Balkans and the Alps and northeast towards the Volga River. Beginning in the century, the Slavs gradually converted to Christianity. The meaning of Slav depends on the context in which it is used, the word can refer to a culture living north of the River Danube, east of the River Elbe, and west of the River Vistula during the 530s CE. Slav is also an identifier for the group shared by these cultures. When discussing evidence used to construct a history of the Slavs, archaeologically, early Slavic physical evidence ranges from hill forts, ceramic pots and fragments to abodes. However, archaeologists face difficulties distinguishing Slavic and non-Slavic findings, many of these findings are inaccurately radiocarbon-dated or so isolated that they do not reflect organized Slavic settlement. Although a number of sources describe the Slavs, there are problems with using the texts to build upon available knowledge of the early Slavs. Useful historical information about the Slavs from them is cryptic or does not identify their source, the works tend to discuss the Slavs only in terms of their effects on surrounding empires, particularly the Byzantines and the Franks. The variety of names referring to the Slavs, such as Antes, Sclaveni, and Venethi, place names have changed, or no longer survive, and most texts are second-hand accounts or describe an encounter with the Slavs years, decades, or centuries after it occurred. Earlier texts contextualize the Slavs early history and development, but those written long after an event are less reliable, the Slavs were described by their neighbors as Antes, Sclaveni, and Venethi in texts written during and after the 500s. The concept of ethnicity during this period was fluid, more than one ethnicity would be ascribed to a group and this map of Slavic settlement during the 6th century relative to their neighbors drawn from written fragments, omits source information which contradicted Parczewskis conclusions. The association by archaeologists of pot and burial styles with ethnonyms, Ethnic identification can be subjective, especially in a region where many tribal groups identified themselves as distinct from one another. The history of the early Slavs is inseparable from political agendas underlying much 19th- and 20th-century archaeological, linguistic, according to Florin Curta, the creation of such a history was a function of both ethnic formation and ethnic identification. The Slavic languages, with about 300 million speakers in 2006, are a branch of the Indo-European language family. All known Slavic languages share a number of features, which suggests that they evolved from mutually intelligible dialects spoken in a relatively restricted core area, although the former common language is not attested in written sources, it can be reconstructed by studying its daughter languages. The similarities among the daughter languages indicate that Common Slavic was spoken during recorded history, theories attempting to place Slavic origin in the Near East have been discarded. None of the proposed homelands reaches the Volga River in the east, over the Dinaric Alps in the southwest or the Balkan Mountains in the south, southern Ukraine is known to have been inhabited by Scythian and Sarmatian tribes before the Goths
8.
Belozersk
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Known as Beloozero until 1777, it was first chronicled in 862 as one of the five original Russian towns. According to the Primary Chronicle, Sineus, a brother of Rurik, however, Sineus most likely never existed. On several occasions, the settlement was moved from one bank of the lake to another, in the 11th century, the region was still inhabited primarily by Finno-Ugric tribes who fiercely resisted Christianization. In 1071, local pagan priests rose in rebellion, which was put down by the Kievan commander Yan Vyshatich, the Primary Chronicle reports that the dead bodies of priests were suspended from an oak tree, until they were torn to pieces by a bear. From the 10th to the 13th centuries, the territory was controlled by the Novgorod Republic, Beloozero was the seat of a small principality between 1238 and the 1370s, but subsequently between 1380 and 1384 became subordinate to the Grand Duchy of Moscow. On July 10,1612, Polish and Lithuanian vagabonds captured Belozersk without a fight, in the course of the administrative reform carried out in 1708 by Peter the Great, Beloozero was included into Ingermanland Governorate and named one of the towns constituting the governorate. In 1727, a separate Novgorod Governorate was split off and Belozersk became the seat of Belozersk Province in Novgorod Governorate, in 1776, the territory was transferred to Novgorod Viceroyalty. In 1796, the viceroyalty was abolished and Belozersky Uyezd became a part of Novgorod Governorate, in June 1918, five uyezds of Novgorod Governorate, including Belozersky Uyezd, were split off to form Cherepovets Governorate, with the administrative center in Cherepovets. On August 1,1927, Cherepovets Governorate was abolished and its territory became Cherepovets Okrug of Leningrad Oblast, at the same time, uyezds were abolished and Belozersky District was established. On September 23,1937, Belozersky District was transferred to newly established Vologda Oblast, within the framework of administrative divisions, Belozersk serves as the administrative center of Belozersky District. As an administrative division, it is incorporated within Belozersky District as the town of significance of Belozersk. Belozersk falls just within the subarctic climate range, with the fourth-warmest month being just below the isotherm of 10 °C to nearby humid continental areas, winters are cold but not severe by Russian standards for areas north of the 60th parallel. The economy of Belozersk is based on industry and food industry. Belozersk is connected by roads with Cherepovets, Kirillov. The Belozersky Canal, a part of the Volga–Baltic Waterway, which connects the river courses of the Sheksna, the town of Belozersk is classified as a historical town by the Ministry of Culture of Russia, which implies certain restrictions on construction in the historical center. The medieval monuments in the center are the Assumption Church. The wooden shrine of St. Elijah was built in 1690, the neighborhood is rich in old cloisters, such as Kirillo-Belozersky and Ferapontov Monasteries. Two of the most famous medieval icons were created in the 13th century in Belozersk and they constitute an intermediate style between Novgorodian and Northern icon painting
9.
Dendrochronology
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Dendrochronology is the scientific method of dating tree rings to the exact year they were formed in order to analyze atmospheric conditions during different periods in history. Dendrochronology is useful for determining the timing of events and rates of change in the environment and also in works of art and architecture, such as old panel paintings on wood, buildings and it is also used in radiocarbon dating to calibrate radiocarbon ages. New growth in trees occurs in a layer of cells near the bark, a trees growth rate changes in a predictable pattern throughout the year in response to seasonal climate changes, resulting in visible growth rings. Each ring marks a complete cycle of seasons, or one year, as of 2013, the oldest tree-ring measurements in the Northern Hemisphere extend back 13,900 years. Dendrochronology derives from Ancient Greek, δένδρον, meaning tree limb, χρόνος, meaning time, and -λογία, the Greek botanist Theophrastus first mentioned that the wood of trees has rings. In his Trattato della Pittura, Leonardo da Vinci was the first person to mention that trees form rings annually, in 1737, French investigators Henri-Louis Duhamel du Monceau and Georges-Louis Leclerc de Buffon examined the effect of growing conditions on the shape of tree rings. They found that in 1709, a severe winter produced a distinctly dark tree ring, the English polymath Charles Babbage proposed using dendrochronology to date the remains of trees in peat bogs or even in geological strata. During the latter half of the century, the scientific study of tree rings. In 1859, the German-American Jacob Kuechler used crossdating to examine oaks in order to study the record of climate in western Texas, in 1866, the German botanist, entomologist, and forester Julius Ratzeburg observed the effects on tree rings of defoliation caused by insect infestations. By 1882, this observation was already appearing in forestry textbooks, in the 1870s, the Dutch astronomer Jacobus C. Kapteyn was using crossdating to reconstruct the climates of the Netherlands, in 1881, the Swiss-Austrian forester Arthur von Seckendorff-Gudent was using crossdating. From 1869 to 1901, Robert Hartig, a German professor of forest pathology, wrote a series of papers on the anatomy, in 1892, the Russian physicist Fedor Nikiforovich Shvedov wrote that he had used patterns found in tree rings to predict droughts in 1882 and 1891. During the first half of the 20th century, the astronomer A. E. Douglass founded the Laboratory of Tree-Ring Research at the University of Arizona. Growth rings, also referred to as tree rings or annual rings, growth rings are the result of new growth in the vascular cambium, a layer of cells near the bark that is classified as a lateral meristem, this growth in diameter is known as secondary growth. Visible rings result from the change in speed through the seasons of the year, thus, critical for the title method. If the bark of the tree has been removed in a particular area, the rings are more visible in temperate zones, where the seasons differ more markedly. The inner portion of a ring is formed early in the growing season, when growth is comparatively rapid and is known as early wood. Many trees in temperate zones make one growth ring each year, hence, for the entire period of a trees life, a year-by-year record or ring pattern is formed that reflects the age of the tree and the climatic conditions in which the tree grew
10.
Earthenware
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Earthenware is glazed or unglazed nonvitreous pottery which has normally been fired below 1200°C. Porcelain, bone china and stoneware, all fired at high temperatures to vitrify, are the main other important types of pottery. Pit fired earthenware dates back to as early as 29, 000–25,000 BCE, outside East Asia, porcelain was manufactured only from the 18th century, and then initially as an expensive luxury. Earthenware, when fired, is opaque and non-vitreous, soft, the Combined Nomenclature of the European Communities describes it as being made of selected clays sometimes mixed with feldspars and varying amounts of other minerals and white or light-colored. Generally, earthenware bodies exhibit higher plasticity than most whiteware bodies and hence are easier to shape by RAM press, due to its porosity, earthenware, with a water absorption of 5-8%, must be glazed to be watertight. Earthenware has lower mechanical strength than bone china, porcelain or stoneware, darker-colored terracotta earthenwares, typically orange or red, due to a comparatively high content of iron oxide are widely used for flower pots, tiles and some decorative and oven wares. A general body formulation for contemporary earthenware is 25% kaolin, 25% ball clay, 35% quartz and 15% feldspar. Modern earthenware may be fired to temperatures between 1,000 and 1,150 °C and glost-fired to between 950 to 1,050 °C, the usual practice in factories and some studio potteries. Some studio potters follow the practice, with a low-temperature bisque firing. The firing schedule will be determined by the raw materials used, historically, such high temperatures were unattainable in most cultures and periods until modern times, though Chinese ceramics were far ahead of other cultures in this respect. Earthenware can be produced at firing temperatures as low as 600 °C, much historical pottery was fired somewhere around 800 °C, giving a wide margin of error where there was no precise way of measuring temperature, and very variable conditions within the kiln. After firing most earthenware bodies will be colored white, buff or red, for red earthenware, the firing temperature affects the color of the clay body. Lower temperatures produce a red terracotta color, higher temperatures will make the clay brown or even black. Higher firing temperatures may cause earthenware to bloat, an Introduction to the Technology Of Pottery. Whitewares, Production, Testing And Quality Control, the Potters Dictionary of Materials and Techniques. A & C Black Publishers Limited, London, England, Third Edition,1991
11.
Slavs
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Slavs are the largest Indo-European ethno-linguistic group in Europe. They are native to Central Europe, Eastern Europe, Southeastern Europe, Northeastern Europe, North Asia, Slavs speak Slavic languages of the Balto-Slavic language group. From the early 6th century they spread to inhabit most of Central, states with Slavic languages comprise over 50% of the territory of Europe, therefore it is the largest ethno-linguistic group in Europe by land area. Present-day Slavic people are classified into West Slavs, East Slavs, there are an estimated 360 million Slavs worldwide. The Slavic autonym is reconstructed in Proto-Slavic as *Slověninъ, plural *Slověne, the oldest documents written in Old Church Slavonic and dating from the 9th century attest the autonym as Slověne. The word slovo and the related slava and slukh originate from the Proto-Indo-European root *ḱlew-, cognate with Ancient Greek κλῆς, whence comes the name Pericles, Latin clueo, some other theories have limited support. The English term slave eventually derives from the ethnonym Slav, Slavs were captured and enslaved by the Muslims of Spain during the ninth century AD. The Slavs under name of the Antes and the Sclaveni make their first appearance in Byzantine records in the early 6th century. Procopius wrote in 545 that the Sclaveni and the Antae actually had a name in the remote past. He described them as barbarians, who lived under democracy, and that believe in one god. They lived in scattered housing, and constantly changed settlement, regarding warfare, they were mainly foot soldiers with small shields and battleaxes, lightly clothed, some entering battle naked with only their genitals covered. And they live a life, giving no heed to bodily comforts. Jordanes described the Sclaveni having swamps and forests for their cities, another 6th-century source refers to them living among nearly impenetrable forests, rivers, lakes, and marshes. Menander Protector mentions a Daurentius that slew an Avar envoy of Khagan Bayan I. The Avars asked the Slavs to accept the suzerainty of the Avars, he declined and is reported as saying, Others do not conquer our land. The relationship between the Slavs and a called the Veneti east of the River Vistula in the Roman period is uncertain. The name may refer both to Balts and Slavs, perhaps some Slavs migrated with the movement of the Vandals to Iberia and north Africa. Around the 6th century, Slavs appeared on Byzantine borders in great numbers, the Byzantine records note that grass would not regrow in places where the Slavs had marched through, so great were their numbers
12.
Hedeby
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Hedeby was an important Viking Age trading settlement near the southern end of the Jutland Peninsula, now in the Schleswig-Flensburg district of Schleswig-Holstein, Germany. It is the most important archaeological site in Schleswig-Holstein, the settlement developed as a trading centre at the head of a narrow, navigable inlet known as the Schlei, which connects to the Baltic Sea. Hedeby was the second largest Nordic town during the Viking Age, after Uppåkra in present-day southern Sweden, Hedeby was abandoned after its destruction in 1066. Hedeby was rediscovered in the late 19th century and excavations began in 1900, the Haithabu Museum was opened next to the site in 1985. The Old Norse name Heiða-býr simply translates to heath-settlement, the name is recorded in numerous spelling variants. Heiðabýr is the name in standard Old Norse, also anglicized as Heithabyr The Stone of Eric. Old English aet Haethe, mentioned by Alfred the Great Hedeby, the old name of the nearby town of Schleswig is Sliesthorp. It is possible that the two names were used interchangeably for the settlement, depending on which language was being used. Hedeby is first mentioned in the Frankish chronicles of Einhard who was in the service of Charlemagne, in 808 the Danish king Godfred destroyed a competing Slav trade centre named Reric, and it is recorded in the Frankish chronicles that he moved the merchants from there to Hedeby. This may have provided the impetus for the town to develop. The same sources record that Godfred strengthened the Danevirke, a wall that stretched across the south of the Jutland peninsula. The Danevirke joined the defensive walls of Hedeby to form an east-west barrier across the peninsula, the town itself was surrounded on its three landward sides by earthworks. At the end of the 9th century the northern and southern parts of the town were abandoned for the central section, later a 9-metre high semi-circular wall was erected to guard the western approaches to the town. On the eastern side, the town was bordered by the innermost part of the Schlei inlet, Hedeby became a principal marketplace because of its geographical location on the major trade routes between the Frankish Empire and Scandinavia, and between the Baltic and the North Sea. Between 800 and 1000 the growing power of the Vikings led to its dramatic expansion as a major trading centre. The following indicate the importance achieved by the town, The town was described by visitors from England, Hedeby became the seat of a bishop and belonged to the Archbishopric of Hamburg and Bremen. The town minted its own coins, Adam of Bremen reports that ships were sent from this portus maritimus to Slavic lands, to Sweden, Samland and even Greece. A Swedish dynasty founded by Olof the Brash is said to have ruled Hedeby during the last decades of the 9th century and this was told to Adam of Bremen by the Danish king Sweyn Estridsson, and it is supported by three runestones found in Denmark
